Tan Man

This made me lol at work today.

Have you ever noticed that if you need a tan, people will make fun of you for being so white, but if you admit to tanning, those same people will make fun of you for being "gay"? What's up with that?

Interesting historical fact: It's only been recently in history that being tan was considered attractive. For hundreds of years before that, true beauty, the kind of stuff that inspired poets, was all about being porcelain white.

Why? Because being tan meant you were a common laborer forced by your poverty to work in the sun. Only the rich and powerful were white skinned; therefore, white skin became a status symbol.

Being fat, or at least chubby, was a sign of beauty and wealth too. (Just look at classic works of art.) After all, back in the day, you had to be rich to be fat. Only the social elite could afford to eat enough to get fat, so fat became synonymous with money and status!

Funny that in today's society we strive to be tan and lean – to look like lowly field workers. Meanwhile, the poor are among the most obese in the US. My how times change.